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Sahil Kapur

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Sahil Kapur is TPM's senior congressional reporter and Supreme Court correspondent. His articles have been published in the Huffington Post, The Guardian and The New Republic. Email him at sahil@talkingpointsmemo.com and follow him on Twitter at @sahilkapur.

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Sahil

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are anxiously bracing for a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the week, even as the Senate took steps to try to end the stalemate on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced an agreement to hold separate votes on a "clean" Homeland Security funding bill and on a bill to block President Barack Obama's immigration executive actions. De-linking the two issues is a reversal of course for McConnell after he failed repeatedly to break a Democratic filibuster on legislation that conditions DHS funding on stopping Obama's actions.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) can count on the vote of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on his new standalone bill to overturn President Barack Obama's 2014 immigration actions, but only after a "clean" Homeland Security funding bill passes, according to his office.

Manchin spokesman Jonathan Kott said in an email Tuesday that the senator would want both the Senate and the House to pass DHS funding legislation first.

The months-long standoff over President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration took a major turn late Monday when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proposed decoupling funding for the Department of Homeland Security from legislative action against Obama on deportations.

The threat of withholding DHS funding to block Obama's immigration moves has been the centerpiece of the GOP's political strategy for months. McConnell's proposal to de-link them is a sign that he's trying to find a way out of a battle that GOP leaders in both chambers never really wanted, but which has been pushed by hard-liners within the party.

WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee gave a speech Monday in which he tried to explain apparent discrepancies in his position about the validity of Obamacare tax subsidies on the federal exchange.

WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said Monday that he will unveil contingency plans for Obamacare if the Supreme Court invalidates premium tax credits in some three-dozen states this summer.

The White House announced Friday it will ask a federal judge in Texas to lift his temporary order blocking the Obama administration from implementing its recent series of executive actions on immigration while the government appeals the injunction.

WASHINGTON — For Republicans, winning the potentially decisive vote of Chief Justice John Roberts to gut a centerpiece of Obamacare could hinge on persuading him that the health care system won't descend into chaos if he grants them their wish.